Union, hospital talks narrow gap
Saturday, October 30, 2004 11:46 PM PDT
By Staff
Printable version
E-mail this articleNegotiators for St. John Medical Center and 400 of its service workers will resume contract talks Monday morning after making "good progress" in a bargaining session Friday, a hospital spokesman said Saturday.
"The negotiators have made good progress.They are taking Saturday and Sunday off and will resume Monday morning," hospital spokesman Randy Querin said.
The parties won't reveal what proposal is currently on the table, Querin said, until the union agrees to take a proposal to its membership.
With assistance from a federal mediator, the new talks began about two weeks ago after most members of the Service Employees International Union staged a one-day strike to protest the lack of progress in the contract talks. The union represents nursing assistants, food workers, housekeepers and numerous other medical and service workers.
Earlier talks broke down over wages, medical benefit premiums for families and part-time workers and policies and pay when workers get fewer than 10 hours' rest between shifts.
Union officials could not be reached for comment Saturday.
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